Introduction
The explorations project was an opportunity for all juniors to explore their own interests and passions by building new 21st century skills. In each class, we were assigned projects that allowed us a lot of freedom and creative autonomy. For film, we were tasked with exploring a film-related skill over four weeks and producing a presentation and product to share with our peers. In English we were tasked with writing a poem any way we wanted after researching various poets. This was a really fun unit for everyone since we were all able to explore personal interests. It was lots of fun to share our progress with each other and expand our skills.
My film exploration was into film scoring. Since I’ve never had any musical experience outside of Digital Media, and have always loved music and its ability to convey emotion, I wanted to learn how music and film work together. I researched film scoring and then scored part of my own original experimental film.
Film Scoring
Film scoring refers to composing and recording original music for a certain film. Film scorers work closely with producers to use music to enhance the film. Film scoring is very intentional and requires the scorer to have a deep understanding of the film and intention behind each scene they score. For my explorations project I decided to score the first part of my experimental film. I chose to work with Garageband since it was easy to run on my home computer.
I started by making a Garageband file and importing my movie. From there, I watched it through and identified the key moments that would need a tone shift and started brainstorming what I wanted it to sound like. From there, I created a tempo map to make sure the pacing was supported by the music and the key moments were hit. I identified two key moments: the fading of the initial rose, and the introduction of the bouquet. I wanted to have two tone shifts overall. From there, I explored the extensive sounds available in Garageband. There were many, and it took me a long time. I layered different instruments and eventually produced 30 seconds of music for the introduction of my film. I think the hardest part was putting the music together, since I have no musical training. It was helpful that my film was experimental because it allowed the music to be more experimental as well. Below is my final product.
I most valued from this project being able to explore this skill that I had never explored before. I learned so much about digital music making with MIDI and it really grew my skills as a filmmaker. I now feel much more capable of film scoring, and would like to apply these new skills to the scoring of some of my other films. I definitely have a long ways to go in my music-making and film-scoring abilities, but this project helped me build a useful foundation of skills that I can expand upon and apply to other films.
Poetry
Poetry has always been an outlet of expression for me but before this unit, I had never shared it publicly. We were lucky enough to have a poet Mrs. Christine Moore come to Freestyle to teach us about the poetry process and support us in expanding our skills. Throughout three workshops with Mrs. Moore, I became much more comfortable sharing my poetry with my peers. It was so cool to see how everyone slowly broke down their barriers and by the end of the unit, performed their original poems in front of the entire class. My final poem was one I have been working on for a couple weeks. It is featured below.
My burning palisades
A wild succession this was
your kudzu reach was quick
to consume me
your hands, your hair, entangledinmine
became an extension of me
and even after I shoved you into the alcove
of my mind
you reach outwards and I feel you,
a phantom vine.
Honeysuckle sweet from the start
you tempted me,
so I wouldn’t question when your sugar coated hand
dropped
mine
or when you composed dulcet notes over poison lines.
The wildfire that was you
has burnt me into the ground, I am hazy.
L.A. in late April,
my breath is the wind you need to survive
I am suffocating while you look at my lips
but hear no scream, I am invisible.
A dirty footprint at the top of the viewpoint,
the cusp of the wave,
sharpened for a split second
above the only evidence of our gentle sin
before being swallowed
into forgotten history.
Into what we were destined to be from the start.
Into nothing.
My poetic inspirations oftentimes come from the music I listen to. Any chance I get, I am always listening to music. I appreciate the emotional depth of music and how it never fails to resonate with me no matter what mood I am in. One of my favorite musical artists, Lana Del Rey, is also a poet. I analyzed her poem, My Bedroom is a Sacred Place Now while researching poetry during this unit. I draw a lot of lyrical inspiration from my favorite artists, and I think that is reflected in my poem, along with the melodic rhythm of my poem.
This poem is about many things. It connects to my experience with mental health and how I’ve experienced both reliance on others, and self-isolation, and quick transition between the two which causes guilt. It is also about overlooking toxicity in relationships and letting a sugar-coated vision of people consume you. It is about silently struggling because you wont let people see below the surface. Finally, it is about the spiral and loss of control that comes with being vulnerable with others. All in all, I hope the reader can derive their own personal meaning.
Poetry Production
I think my production conveys the personal spirit of my poem quite well because I used my own GDE’s and photos to put it together, as well as my own voice to read the poem. I was able to create a visual and audible representation of my poem which I think enhances the entire experience to resonate with peoples emotions more.
I really valued the creative freedom I was given in this production because it meant I was able to make something I truly enjoyed putting together. Under my personal projects page, I have a few similar productions that I’ve done on my own, so I felt very much in my element while making this. I really love being able to combine music, poetry, photography, and illustration, and I love using Illustrator, Photoshop, and Premiere. This production was such a fun project!